Abstract
Diabetes prevention requires a multifaceted approach taking into consideration all risk factors affecting the patient’s condition. The affected person needs both theoretical and physical support to modify her lifestyle, develop healthy habits, quit smoking, and monitor her blood tests results. The following project will list three helpful resources for this patient and for all those who need help in diabetes prevention and health promotion.
Introduction
The patient in the risk group for diabetes needs a well-elaborated prevention strategy that includes sufficient theoretical and physical support. First of all, such a patient will need education on how to modify his or her lifestyle to improve the ability of the body to resist the negative factors. Next, one will need an environment that would sustain his or her desire to adjust to the lifestyle. Moreover, one will need a supportive community with a system of psychological backing. This paper will observe three different health resources for people affected by diabetes available in Florida.
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or as it is commonly known by both the healthcare professionals and common people, CDC, is one of the most popular theoretic resources containing all the necessary data to help one manage one’s health with an objective to prevent diabetes or significantly improve one’s condition if he or she is already affected. CDC has the largest scope of materials with different angles and focuses of interest. This resource is the collection of data on proper diet, sufficient physical activity, useful habits, help that the relatives and close ones can provide to the affected person, and many more. It is also a valuable guide for medical professionals on diabetes epidemiology and care (CDC, 2016). Besides, this website provides information about the federal and state programs and initiatives acting in every community around the United States with an objective to help vulnerable populations and remove health disparities.
Apart from being 100% trustworthy and fully supported by the latest findings in the area of evidence-based medical research, the most attractive feature of this resource is its fee policy. CDC is totally free of charge because it is the governmental project financed from the federal budget. In addition, CDC provides links to other voluntary and government-financed projects. This fact is of high significance for the majority of people affected by diabetes because research has identified that most of them belong to a certain economically disadvantaged group.
In the care plan milestone project, the information from this resource will be implemented for educating the patient and her family members regarding the lifestyle modification to improve her health status and prevent uncontrolled diabetes development. The data provided by CDC (2016) will suggest recommendations towards the proper diet, physical activity increase, developing positive habits, and quitting the negatives ones such as smoking ad spending long hours without motion next to the TV.
Living for Health
To address the diabetes problem, the Florida health department with the help from federal health care institutions developed and introduced the “Living for Health” (L4H) program. According to Almufleh (2015), Living for Health is a community-based health outreach program that offers free healthy eating and moving events with the objective to help the residents promote their health status and reduce the risk of diabetes morbidity. The purpose of this program is to identify community inhabitants with diabetes risk factors and refer them to “their Primary care provider or –if unavailable- FQHCs for treatment and follow up” (Almufleh, 2015, p. 181).
The program success is highly appraised by the federal and local health care organizations and researchers. According to Almufleh (2015), “our study revealed that a large percentage (59%) of participants screened in L4H program had at least one abnormal clinical parameter warranting referral to a physician.” (p. 181). From the above-mentioned quotation, a conclusion can be made that L4H effectively addresses the issue of monitoring the diabetes risk factors and thus, it provides patients with a chance to identify their health problems timely and address them with the help of a physician.
In the care plan, the link to this resource will be provided to help the patient and her family members readdress their beliefs about the healthy eating and being physically active. Since the program events offered by L4H are free of charge, the patient will be able to benefit from its provisions fully despite her economic problems she has.
Wisewoman
WISEWOMAN program based in Florida is the CDC-sponsored initiative aiming to provide free medical tests for blood pressure, diabetes screening, and cholesterol to women in communities around Florida (CDC, 2015). In addition, the service offers an opportunity to engage in support groups with the female population affected by the similar problems. Thus, the main objective of WISEWOMAN program is to focus on diabetes risk factors and the patient support system elaboration. However, this resource is not limited to the diabetes-focused arrangements. Its focus is much broader. For instance, its other main area of specialization is screening for the cardiovascular risks (CDC, 2015). This aspect is important for the identified patient because diabetes developmental trajectory is cardiovascular morbidity and mortality first of all (CDC, 2015).
This resource can help the patient participate in the free of charge screening events to monitor her health status and risks to develop uncontrolled diabetes. Moreover, with the use of this helpful resource she will be able to improve her support system considerably by establishing partnerships with the women in the community having the same problem. Recommendation to engage in this program will be placed in the care plan both for the patient and the family members to ensure that the patient is compliant with the screening schedule for uncontrolled diabetes despite the complexity she has identified of having no funds for these arrangements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be pointed out that diabetes prevention requires the multifaceted approach. The affected person needs both the theoretic and physical support to modify one’s lifestyle and develop the healthy habits. This project has offered information about three health resources available in the state of Florida: CDC, L4H, and WISEWOMAN. CDC is the federal resource with the abundance of recommendations on diabetes prevention. L4H is the Florida-based healthcare program that organizes and holds non-commercial events for all residents in the community who are in the risk group for diabetes and need help to monitor their eating and lifestyle habits as well as other risk factors. WISEWOMAN is a free resource financed by CDC with the purpose to help the economically-disadvantaged women around Florida engage in regular screening events for diabetes and acquire the needed emotional supports in the support groups.
References
Almufleh, A. (2015). Role of community health outreach program “living for health” in improving access to federally qualified health centers in Miami-Dade County, Florida: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1), 181.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2015). WISEWOMAN.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2016). Preventing Type 2 Diabetes When You’re On-the-Go. Web.